New startup program aims to unearth South Africa’s next fintech disruptor.
BriteCap, an innovative new platform for connecting job seekers and employers, took top honours at the first SAP Start-Up@RISE Africa event in Cape Town. SAP Start-up@RISE Africa is an initiative by SAP Africa and Barclays Africa’s Rise Cape Town. It forms part of the Global SAP StartUp Focus initiative that began in 2012 and kicked off in South Africa in 2013.
According to Elke Simon-Keller, Innovation Lead at SAP Africa, the panel was immensely impressed by the innovation and disruptive potential of the start-ups who participated. Each has the potential to boost the African economy and ultimately help the continent prosper. To date SAP has impacted over 3 750 startups across Africa. Through our partnership with Barclays Rise, we hope to expand the forum into the rest of Africa and leverage our technology and network to create viable commercial opportunities for South African fintech startups.”
BriteCap provides an employer benefits platform that connects employers with blue collar workers. A platform for low and medium skilled labour to be more discoverable by potential employers with the aim of integrating financial products and services e.g saving, micro-insurance and micro-loans which ultimately helps build financial resilience for low income communities in Africa. “Our vision is to break down the barriers to employment within the lower skilled labour market and help employers to find and retain financially healthy employees, increasing productivity and decreasing employee churn within this market sector”.
Other participating startups includes Beta Wealth; Fomo Travel; Aliens Moonshot; Revel8 and Zazu. The six startups were invited to pitch their business ideas to a panel of experts and potential business connections led by Nicole Anderson, a global expert in financial technology. The companies were invited to a comprehensive training session focused on how to develop prototypes using the SAP HANA Cloud technology on 21 October.
The qualifying startups will also receive an Apple Mac Pro with a complimentary three-month membership to Rise Cape Town, Macprpa fintech innovation hub renowned for gathering Africa’s brightest minds in the financial services technology industry.
For further information visit the SAP News Center or follow SAP on Twitter @sapafrica
About SAP
As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 300,000 customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.
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For more information:
Nteseng Maboe, SAP Africa, +27 (83) 297 2179, Nteseng.maboe@sap.com
Adam Hunter, Clarity Comms, +27 (711) 787 035, adam@claritycomms.co.za
